Tool
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Saving Hyrule is never easy, especially when your sword refuses to cooperate. Sometimes though, the problem lies with the wielder rather than the weapon.


**Tool**

"Oh, not this again..."

"Leave me alone...it's too early to get up."

Longing for the simple days of Skyloft, Link could point out at least three flaws with that claim. Firstly, with the sun well and truly risen, "too early" was the last paired adjective he would use to describe the day. Secondly, swords shouldn't get tired. And finally, if a sword _did _get tired, it should have been impossible for said sword to actually complain about it.

"Farore went overtime with you," the Skyloftian murmured, picking up the Skyward Sword and beginning to strap its sheathed form to its belt. "I think metal was purely within Din's realm and-..."

"No no no!" the sword shrieked, causing the teenager to drop the blade in surprise. "Leave me alone! I don't care if you're a hero, you're not getting your grubby fingers on my hilt!"

"My fingers are gloved..." Link murmured, brushing away some dirty blonde hair that was hiding a throbbing temple. "You have nothing to-..."

"No! Leave me alone!"

Slumping down against a tree, Link let the Skyward Sword continue her...no, _its _rant. No-one of a conventional gender could have been so irritating and the visitor to Hyrule was in no mood to vindicate the weapon's whining by accepting its female personality.

_Maybe it's being down on the surface..._the hero thought, beginning to miss Skyloft again. _Hyrule's gone mad...maybe it's affected the sword somehow._

"Go on, leave me here!" the sword whined. "Hyrule's much nicer than that pigsty where you come from!"

_...or not._

It was bad enough that the sword had the personality she was presenting, but at the least she could remember that pigs weren't found on Skyloft and that she came from the hovering land as well. Not Hyrule, currently overrun by evil forces (or "people who are even nicer than you" as the sword put it) and inhabited by people who either refused to believe Skyloft existed or expressed amazement at what Link had considered normal all his life. Fate, if it existed, was being almost as frustrating as whoever thought giving a sword a personality was a good idea in the first place.

_Almost..._

"Alright, enough's enough," Link began, having noticed that the sun had further neared its apex and that the sword was exploiting the virtue of not having breath to run out of. "You've had your fun, now-..."

"Go away!" the sword screeched as the Skyloftian's right hand neared her hilt. "Go away! Leave me here!"

"Leave you here?" Link asked. "Skye, even if I did do that, what then? Someone would just pick you up and-..."

"Well, I'm sure he'd treat me much better than you," the sword declared, rolling over in the dirt as if to demonstrate her current wielder's 'negligence.' "I...wait, what did you say?"

"Um...I said that someone would pick you up if I left you here," the hero repeated, instantly reminded of a cuckoo playing docile before it summoned a flock to attack a helpless victim. "I also-..."

"No, before that," the sword whispered. "You...you called me something..."

"What, Skye?" the swordsman asked. "What about it? Gotta call you something don't I?"

At first, the sword didn't answer. At first, Link assumed she was just playing silent until the time came to erupt in another bout of whining, turning the situation more ugly than a moblin. But with a flash of blue light, the sword assuming her blue humanoid form, "ugly" was the last word in Link's mind. He'd only seen her form once before and that felt like another lifetime ago.

"A name..." whispered the figure, sitting down by the glowing embers of the fire Link had lit last night. "So you weren't the boy in the dream..."

"Dream?" asked the Skyloftian. "But swords don't dream, how could-..."

"Do I look like a sword to you!" the humanoid screamed, sounding more distressed than she had all morning. "Well? Do I!"

Link didn't answer, falling into the role of what a storyteller had once referred to as a silent protagonist-not the most effective way to further a story in his mind, but this was becoming stranger than any piece of fiction. Admittedly the Skyward Sword's humanoid form did indeed bear passing resemblance to humans and hylians, but the shape of her head and her cloak...well, there was undeniably a sword shape to it. Had he been completely truthful, the hero would have said that the figure _did _look a sword.

Still, he held back. Somehow the blue figure, or "Skye" as he'd called her was making him feel sympathy rather than irritation. And while he wasn't sure what there was for him to be sympathetic about, something compelled Link to find out.

"You mentioned a dream you had..."said the Skyloftian slowly, kneeling down in front of the sword. "Want to talk about it?"

The figure met his eyes with her own, eerily similar in form. "Alright..." said the sword slowly. "I'll tell you about it."

"...go on."

The sword sighed. "It...it's hard to describe. All I can recall is that I was in my sword form, placed in a pedestal in some kind of temple."

Link snorted. "What, you got delusions of grandeur? I-..." He trailed off. The look in the sword's eyes made it clear it was no laughing matter.

"At some point, you were in the dream as well..." the sword continued. "Or, at least a child like you. He was way too small to use me, but he pulled me out of the pedestal anyway. And after that...nothing."

"I see..." said Link slowly, not sure of what to make of this. "So...I was the one who gave you nightmares."

"No, it wasn't you. It was...me."

The Skyloftian blinked, and not just because of the sun's steadily increasing glare.

"I...I wasn't conscious," the sword continued, rubbing her hands together despite the day's warmth. "I...I mean, I _was _the sword in the dream, but also wasn't. No thought, no conscience, no...nothing. I was just a weapon, a tool, an unthinking instrument...And I knew that the moment the boy drew me out, I would be nothing more than a weapon of war..."

Link remained silent. Swords weren't meant to have feelings, but for better or worse, the Skyward Sword did. And although he was no expert on weapon psychology, he could tell that the thought of not being a...being had the weapon on edge.

"Listen..." began the hero. "I know you had a bad dream, but-..."

"Get away!" the sword yelled, rising to her feet and doing her best to look intimidating, Link being one foot taller than her not making that easier. "Even if that boy wasn't you, you're no different! I'm just a tool to you, a weapon! By the goddesses, you'd _like _me to be like that sword, wouldn't you? You, the master of...a sword and..."

"Master Sword?"

"Whatever!"

Link wasn't sure how to deal with this. Travelling down to Hyrule had seemed like a good idea at the time, even with the notion that the Skyward Sword had sentience. Even so, he hadn't expected anything as complex as this. How in the name of all creation were you meant to give comfort to a sword who was centuries older than you were, yet acted like a child after a bad dream?

_Comfort her like a child then? Or maybe...maybe..._

"Look..." said Link awkwardly, picking up the sword's scabbard and holding it out slightly in what was meant to be a peace offering. "For what it's worth...I don't think you're a tool."

"Oh really?" the sword asked. "And why's that?"

"Because...well, for starters tools don't speak. Tools don't have feelings. Tools either do the job they're meant do or they don't. And you're certainly not to feel sympathy towards them."

"And you do?" the sword asked, her tone somewhere between sarcastic and sincere, as if she couldn't decide as to how she was feeling.

Link shrugged. "Look, all I know is that you like being who you are and don't like being treated as nothing more than a weapon. So, with that in mind, I...well, I promise not to stick you in any pedestals for starters."

The sword giggled, her dark blue skin around her cheeks turning the colour of the sky. It was a nice sound.

"Alright," said the sword. "I'll take you at your word."

And watching the sword morph back into a blade, Link swore he would keep it.

After all, it wasn't as if destiny would dictate otherwise...

* * *

_A/N_

_The idea for this came from the leaked concept art for _Skyward Sword_, showing Link and the blue figure. Still, with recent info from E3, I decided to put it into practice. Not sure whether the Skyward Sword will actually be a 'buddy' character in the same way as say Midna or Navi, but I'm hoping that's the case. Makes her fated transformation into the Master Sword more interesting and, as per my feebes of thought, tragic._

_Or something. 0_0_


End file.
